It was Wednesday evening. The girls were finally sound asleep in their beds. We were kissing in the kitchen when Merritt picked me up and carried me over the threshold into our new bedroom…
We were just as excited, and even more in love, than the honeymooners who moved into this little pink house nearly four years ago…
P.S. My husband made not only the bed and bedside table that you see, but our mantle clock as well. Yes, he is amazing. And takes such very good care of us. I love my farmer!
Shoeness
Weather & Weddings
Merritt and I got married on May 27, 2006, a day of record rainfall in Oregon. William and Natalie got married on December 19, 2009, the day of the worst blizzard in Virginia in many, many years. We’ve already told Jessica she had better carefully choose her wedding day, and be prepared for extremities in weather. We were told that rain on one’s wedding day is good luck. And though we don’t believe in luck, we feel quite blessed. We’re sure Will and Natalie will consider the blizzard quite the story, if nothing else. And it made for great pictures. Our family Christmas photo shows the snow piling up outside the window!
Here is the point where I have to make a confession: I am a worry wart. From the moment we bought our tickets back in July and discovered there was no other way to get there but through Chicago, I started worrying. We all know how many times we hear of the Chicago airport on the news during the winter months as the place where travelers are stranded. So I started praying, even then, Lord, please, just get us all safely there to the wedding. If we’re stuck afterwards, I don’t care, just let us all get there and get them married.
We were flying to the wedding with the groom, so I knew the wedding couldn’t happen if we didn’t get there. But I didn’t want Natalie to have to go through that, either! So, I kept praying that He would just get us all there. And He did. Every single one of us 19 people that were flying out there together with Will. Every single one of Natalie’s family members made it there, too, except for her brother’s girlfriend—whom I was sad not to be able to meet!
The thing is, the Lord must have taken me literally. Because every flight was canceled on Sunday. We got them married. But there was no getting back home. Continue reading »
On Saturday, December 19, 2009, my big little brother got married. My little sister and new sister-in-law have already recorded all the details. I’ve just jotted down here some random favorite memories from the wedding week…
Tears & Paper Towels
It finally hit me about a week before the big day: I was so going to cry at my brother’s wedding! All I had to do was even think about re-reading the incredibly sweet post he wrote in the days after my wedding. Or reflect on the way I nearly made it through my own wedding day without many tears, only to completely lose it when my big little brother was hugging my goodbye with tears in his eyes. I was so going to cry on the day Will married his southern sweetheart Natalie.
Our little sister Jessica cried all the way through Merritt’s and my wedding. Mercifully, she was standing where I could not see her. I gave her the strictest instructions not to cry at our brother’s wedding. But she wrapped a paper towel around the stems of her bouquet on December 19, just in case.
Thankfully, once again she was standing where I couldn’t see her tears. Instead, my tears came when my daddy choked up while the fathers gave their blessing to Will and Natalie. And I got a bit choked up hugging Will goodbye.
But all in all, I think my salvation from tear-stained cheeks was the way we were all so focused on getting them married and getting out of there before we were all stranded in the snow. Nothing like a little stress from bad roads and the weather to keep one from getting too emotional! And since I am all out of the waterproof mascara I wore at my wedding, I was finding blessings in strange places! Continue reading »
Mary girl,
It’s hard to believe you’re nearly five months old. My how the time flies! You are getting so grown up. You talk and coo and smile a lot. Your laughs and giggles are very rare, but you are the happiest of girls. Especially when you sleep well at night! The last month has been difficult in that regard, with all the traveling we did. You were perfection on the trip—even though your sister had a hard time falling asleep every night in strange places, you were still too young to care. But we got home and your sister got sick and then you got sick after she got better, and getting up so frequently to quench your thirsty, sore throat threw you off the beautiful sleeping-four-to-six-hours-at-night-pattern we were on! For a while your father actually took to calling you “Mary, Mary Quite Contrary” at times. We wondered what had happened to our cheerful baby girl! Just the past few nights we’ve finally begun sleeping well again. Your daddy is threatening to never go anywhere again! However, I’m afraid we’ll have to. Continue reading »
Dear Ruth Ann,
“Deah dah-dynn” was one of your first phrases, which we never could figure out all the meanings to. You said it when you kissed Mary goodnight. You said it whenever anything was special to you. But you also called your daddy “Dah-dynn”. In fact, “Silly Dah-dynn” topped your favorite phrase list before you really took off talking and repeating every single word we said…which happened somewhere in the midst of your uncle’s wedding and Christmas and New Year’s. Now we laugh at the all the things you repeat, and how you put together sentences that make so much sense! Continue reading »
Christian growth can’t be defined by whom we don’t want to be like. It has to be defined by becoming like Jesus. It has to be rooted in relationship to him. And it has to be built on real, Bible-rooted conviction… I’m talking about a heart-level, settled belief before God that doesn’t change with our environment. Conviction is something we believe, not because someone is making us, not because we have to, but because we are convinced it’s what God would have us believe.
-Joshua Harris, Dug Down Deep, pg. 170
In the theme of digging down deep into theology, I wanted to share these bits from a FamilyLife Today broadcast with Barbara Rainey. They were aired soon after I’d read the first chapter of Dug Down Deep, and I couldn’t help but notice the (perhaps unwitting?) reference to Josh’s book title in the introduction to the program. Do take time to read the entire transcripts from both days: they contained many powerful reminders for this woman!
…theology is simply knowing God. It’s the study of God. It’s knowing who He is. …when we know who God is, we know how He thinks, we know what He does, we know why He does what He does. It’s the essence of a relationship. And when we’re studying God’s Word, we’re getting to know Him personally. We’re getting to know God and we’re developing a relationship with Him. So therefore, we understand better why He does what He does. We may not always know why He does what He does, but we can understand better. And I think we’re stronger.
…if we really aren’t in God’s Word, and we just have second-hand information, we’re living on somebody else’s insight or somebody else’s discovery. And that makes for wimpy theology, and it makes for a wimpy woman, too. I don’t want to be a wimpy woman. I want to be a strong woman. I want my strength to come from a one-on-one relationship with God.
“Wimpy theology makes wimpy women.”
-John Piper
Wednesday morning found my husband drooling over the grocery ad: “Bakery-Fresh” 19 oz. Cinnamon Pull-Aparts for $2.98. I decided that must be a sign we were nearly without sweets in the house. Sure enough, he ate the last chocolate chip cookie for lunch. Meanwhile, I set about looking for a recipe for cinnamon pull-aparts. I didn’t really find anything that seemed to fit the exact description. Instead, I landed upon Apple Kuchen.
You’d think after Monday’s experience with the sourdough bread I would at least stay within the recipe, but no, I experimented. I used a base of Fannie Merritt Farmer’s sweet roll refrigerator dough, pressed two diced apples into the dough, and let it rise. I topped it with a package of cream cheese blended with sugar, milk, eggs, flour, and salt. It was something like the topping in The Madison County Cookbook but I had cream cheese I wanted to use, and I am usually too cheap to buy the cream it called for. Thus, my experiment. Which, when it had finally risen and baked to perfection (in half the time the recipe called for), we proceeded to eat while it was still too hot.
It was fabulous. And no, the entire 13×9 pan is not quite gone! Just almost. And now I wonder why I’ve never tried making Apple Kuchen before. Maybe it just sounded difficult. I know my version probably wasn’t very authentic. But it goes down as a favorite, that’s for sure.
The daily updates have been a little lacking here on the online home of the Little Pink House. My reasons (read: excuses) are many. The sleep patterns of two little people got messed up on our trip and are only now getting back to something resembling normal. I’ve been up to my neck in planning and coordinating the advertisements and details of many things for this next year on the farm. Laundry has been never-ending. We’re still in the midst of a remodel. I’m missing my post-by-email feature of Blogger, and as much as I love WordPress, I am even investigating Tumblr to see if it has more workable features for this not-really-online Bloggie Mommy. Plus, I wanted to finish the post about my brother’s wedding first.
In all honesty, I’ve been so exhausted that every post I compose in my head begins with something to the affect of “It’s a good thing Moms don’t need any sleep.” But then I stop there, because somehow, the little things I might write or complain about in my life seem awfully small in light of what is going on in the life of every mom in Haiti right now. I have my babies to hold. They aren’t missing somewhere in the wreckage of an earthquake. They aren’t even in the comparative safety of a hospital having their little over-worked intestines observed like little Davis is right now. I have so incredibly much to be thankful for.
Like my dear, dear husband. Who surprised me Sunday afternoon by disappearing—ostensibly to work on the trim for our rooms over at the wood shop—only to return from town with a goodie bag filled with dark chocolate, a candle, some Burt’s Bees face wash, and a copy of “Julie and Julia” for us to watch that afternoon! Continue reading »